John Baer

Political Columnist

John Baer has written about politics and government for the Daily News since 1987. Neither subject ever fails to provide him with stories of policies and politicians walking on or skirting by paths to perdition.

More by John Baer

It's normal for President Obama to take heat from the GOP. But there's a chorus of complaints about the Pres and his party now coming from other places.

Gov. Rendell took a shot at Obama Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," asserting the president isn't connecting with the American people.

While praising Ronald Reagan (after, he said, reading Chris Matthews' new book, "Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked"), Rendell said Obama could take a lesson from Reagan in talking to citizens in plain language and explaining major issues "riight out of the box."

The former governor and past head of the national Democratic Party said Obama failed to do that on the stimulus and on health care.

Meanwhile, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd on Wednesday writes in a column headlined "Losing the Room," that the president is falling short on big issues from Syria to the ongoing fiscal fight with Congress and a possible government shutdown.

"The man who connected so electrically and facilely in 2008, causing Americans to overlook his thin résumé, cannot seem to connect anymore," she wrote.

That disconnect might be spreading.

A new Gallup poll reported in The Washington Post shows Democrats losing ground on the economy, national security and the overall handling of America's biggest problems.

The poll, which you can see here, says that in the past year Democrats lost almost 10 points on the question of which party is better able to maintain U.S. prosperity while Republicans (though also low) actually gained a little.

On national security, according to the poll, Democrats also dropped while Republicans remained the same.

And on the overal problem-solving question, both parties dropped but Democrats dropped further.

There's really no good news for anybody here. But a year away from 2014 mid-term elections such anti-Obama chatter and no-confidence poll results must make the often self-destructive GOP feel just a little bit better.